Crappy day one plus one…

December 4th 2007 – February 6th, 2008
So now were off to the races. The GI Doc hands me back to the Resident who says I need an Oncologist and a Surgeon like yesterday and that time is of the essence. So I poke around the hospital a little and find out who I should see. Since I work in a hospital (which turns out to be a good thing) there is no shortage of opinions of who I should go and talk to about my situation. I got two pieces of really good advice. The first was from the Nurse Manager of our Oncology floor who said “If I had what you have here is the name of the doctor I am calling”. The second was “Do not accept anything at face value. Ask questions until you are satisfied with the response. If you aren’t satisfied, someone is not doing their job and that is unacceptable.”
So within a few days I have a Medical Team, not just a couple of doctors. I felt like the General Manager of a baseball team going into the draft….

Primary Care Physician- Dr. Elizabeth O’Connor
Oncologist- Dr. Aurilio Tiro
Gastroenterologist- Dr. Edward Alper
Gastroenterologist- Dr. Derek Landan
General Surgeon- Dr. Jeffery VanLeirRibbink
Thoracic Surgeon- Dr. Thomas Wareing

I run into the usual problems like, “Sure Dr. X can see you, our first opening is January 31st” never mind that it’s December 7th and you have an aggressive tumor trying to kill you.”
It didn’t matter. One visit to Dr. Tiro and he was on the phone kicking ass and taking names. Problem solved. So now it’s time to enter the diagnostic portion of our competition.

PET Scan, The best tool for detecting cancer. – Result inconclusive.
CT Scan, Generally reliable scanning tool widely in use for many general medical imaging diagnostics- Result inconclusive.
MRI- Another- Generally reliable scanning tool widely in use for many general medical imaging diagnostics- Result inconclusive.
Esophageal Ultrasound (EUS)- Same as an Endoscopy (EGD) but sin an ultrasound of the affected area- Very useful for staging and mapping of the tumor.

Now that the diagnostics are done we are in the home stretch. Meet with the surgeons (After the call from Dr Tiro that opened up their schedule) and see if they think they can operate. I have two of the best so once the scheduling merry-go round was over February 6th,, 2008 was the day chosen for me to become cancer free.